Coral painted Red

I had a customer buy a piece of white coral a few weeks ago and she wanted it to be a deep, vibrant red. She asked me if I could dye it for her and after telling her that I had never done such a thing, but I was more than willing to do some research and figure it out, she left it with me and said she would be back in two weeks to pick it up.

Before:

I spoke with a friend of mine who is the queen of sea shells and all things that have to do with the beach. I knew she had dyed starfish before in pink, blue, yellow and even green, but I had never seen red. Her advice was to paint it because in her experience she had never achieved a vibrant red; she usually ended up with a whole bunch of dark pink sea life.

During:

So I got out my acrylic paints and went to work. I started by watering the paint down a bit to make it go farther. Then I used a big brush to stipple the paint on the main surfaces of the coral and a small brush to get the hard to reach spots. I started to realize that this was going to take me a very, very long time and I can be incredibly impatient some times. I then decided to try a new technique. I grabbed a spray bottle, filled it with paint and then added enough water so that the paint would pass through the spray nozzle. I soaked the coral with the mixture several times, letting it dry between coats, and voila!! It turned out super bright red.

After:

Spray paint would work great for a project like this and if I ever do this again I think I will just make a quick trip to the hardware store, spend a few bucks, and pick a can up. If you have a spray bottle and paints lying around the house though, this works too and saves you the trip and some cash!